As a travel photographer, going through some of your old work is a bit painful at times. Like any trade, art, or skill, with photography, you’re always improving. It often means that looking back, well you find some gems some times, you also find images that you were once proud of and now think are rubbish. For me, my disappointments have long revolved around an evening shooting in Bern, Switzerland about 3 years ago. I really only had one day to shoot the city and, well, I feel like I wasted it getting stuck on one particular shot that was average at best. What made things worse, is that going through my images from that day there were so many other scenes that would have developed much better in the right light.
Thankfully, I had the chance to redeem myself in Bern thanks to a daytrip from here in Lucerne.
This video is a “Getting the Shot” episode, the variety in which I take you from start to finish from developing an idea for a photo, to the scouting, to the actual shooting, and finally the editing process. Check it out, and then below I have some information on travel photography in Bern, as well as the other images from the day.
Travel Photography Info for Bern
Getting to Bern
As the capital of Switzerland, Bern is easy to get to. All major trains lead to the city, so there’s no issue of getting here. If you’re driving, you’ll want to get yourself as close to the old town as possible to park. We parked at the train station which ended up costing us 20 Swiss Francs. Even close to the old town, you can also park at the Casino parking which is slightly cheaper.
Where to Shoot
For me, the best place in town to shoot is exactly where I went. I’m not sure there are actually that many different locations in the old town. The best photos seemed to come from the edge of old town where the river bends around the city. It’s the most picturesque, in my opinion. Truth is, though, you could really walk anywhere along the riverfront and find worthy photos. In the map posted below you’ll see the 3 locations that I shot at sunset: on the bridge, under the bridge by the bears, and up on the hill looking down on the city. Other cool locations might be the parliament buildings and the cathedral.
Where to Stay
This trip through Bern I just came on a day trip. However, if you’re looking for a hostel in town, last time I was hereI stayed at Berne Backpackers – Hotel Glocke, which was great. It is just a 3 minute walk from the bridge I shot at, and in the heart of old town.
Photos from Bern
Anyways, it was a pretty good day shooting. I mentioned in the video that on a good day of travel photography you’re really only trying to get one really special image, anything after that is gravy. Well, in the end, I think I came up with about 4 images I’m really happy with and about 10 that I’ll keep on file. Here they are:
I tried to do something simple with this shot and just grab rooftops. I love how it came out. Shot at 200mm: f/8, 1/200sec. ISO200. Edited with Color Efex Pro
As the light was coming down, I wanted to try to star the sun into an HDR photo. I like the results, but there was a lot of light flare. Although, that might actually add something to the image. Shot in HDR -2, 0. and +2 at 10mm: f/16, 1/30 seconds, ISO100
Right after the sun went down, we got this really soft light backing across the river from the old town of Bern. 10mm: f/16, 1/2 second. Iso100
Well I was waiting for the really good light to come, I messed around with a bit of a tilt-shift photo. 10mm: f/16, 1 second, ISO100
Boom, the good light. This is the image of Bern I showed you the process of in the video. I’m stoked how it came out! 10mm: f/11, 1/8 Seconds, ISO100
Under the bridge, the light was rough, so I did a bit of a Black and White image. 32mm: f/9, 1/2 seconds, ISO100
Took out the zoom lens as well under the bridge to try to capture something a bit different than my wider files. 80mm: f/9, 1.6 seconds, ISO100
After the light went down, we raced up the hill to try to capture some cityscapes of Bern. We got some strange light, and probably would have been better off shooting this at sunrise rather than sunset, but it works. 70mm: f/7.1, 6 seconds, ISO100.
The problem with the light was that they didn’t light up the cathedral and church until most of the good light was gone, so we got some harshly contrasted exposures like this one. 42mm: f/9, 15 seconds, ISO100.
I tried to zoom in on the scene and get these flowing lines up to the parliament building in Bern. The results are pretty cool. 95mm: f/9, 30 seconds, ISO100
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